Exploring the Expressions of Student Agency and Contextual Factors through University Students’ Experiences with an Integrated Competency Management System

Abstract

This study aimed to explore how student agency is expressed through university students’ use of an Integrated Competency Management System (ICMS) and to identify the contextual factors facilitating such expression. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine undergraduate students at I University in South Korea who had experience using the ICMS. The data was qualitatively analyzed using Leadbeater’s (2017) four components of student agency—goal setting, investment of time and effort, reflective self-evaluation, and responsibility—and the student-system interaction process was organized into four categories: relating, interacting, reflecting, and progressing. The findings showed that the system helped students transform vague career aspirations into concrete goals, encouraged their investment of time and effort in self-exploration, enabled career redesign through reflective self-evaluation, and fostered responsible action grounded in self-analysis. Student agency expression was further facilitated through “relating” via required coursework, “interacting” with diagnostic tools, “reflecting” through accumulated self-records, and “progressing” via career-planning roadmaps. However, some participants showed uncritical acceptance of system-generated results and a gap between awareness and practice. This study highlights both the potential and limitations of student agency expression within an online system environment and suggests that such systems can function as conditional educational contexts promoting student growth.